XIXAX Film Forum

..i didn't see a thread for docus when i searched...its could be b/c their isn't one or it could be b/c i'm a phucking idiot....but i need some help...or list of favs docs i should see or what you guys like the most..

i have..seen :

bowling for columbine-good ..even though i don't like MM this is an eye opening doc...which is what i think all docs should do....

capturing the friedmans-solid...

winged migration--solid.

and i recently bought the kid stays in the picture..and planning on watching it tonight......suggestions/list of favs./help/witty banter/?

........BTW- recently i have been addicted to ceaser salads and ceaser dressing am i the only one.?.......

(http://www.cafemarcel.co.kr/movie_images/buena-vista-social-club.jpg)Buena Vista!!!!! my favorite, this Documentary is beautiful, and i loved it maybe because i always thought that there was nothing better than Music and Cinema at the same time, and GREAT music in a GREAT documentary, is just perfect to me....God bless Win Wenders(http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/26/26_images/riefenstahl_olympia.jpg) (http://www.leni-riefenstahl.de/images/film/013_000.jpg)i know, i know, Leni Riefenstahl's name will be always controversial but if we talk just about cinema and documentaries, hers is one of the most important names...and "Olympia" is a Master Piece in my opinion...and talking about her, there is a very interesting documentary called "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl" , i recommend it.

Harlan County, U.S.A.Sherman's MarchGates of HeavenVernon, Fla.The Thin Blue LineFast, Cheap and Out of ControlMr. DeathSalesmanGimme ShelterNight and FogShoahThe Sorrow and the PityInto the Arms of StrangersHearts and MindsDear America: Letters Home From VietnamHoop DreamsStartup.comAmerican MovieSpellbound

WGA Creates Docu CategoryMichael Moore's Bowling for Columbine will be the first and only documentary ever nominated for the Guild's original screenplay award.

The Writers Guild of America is tweaking its awards system, creating a feature documentary writing award and excluding documentaries eligibility for its original screenplay award.

The new awards will be presented at a reception early next year rather than at the WGA Awards ceremony on February 19.

The change was made partially because the amount of documentaries released this year in Los Angeles has more than doubled, going from 23 to 50. Thirty contain writing credits, while last year, only eight did.

The change means that Michael Moore will not be winning his second WGA award for original screenplay for Fahrenheit 9/11, after winning the original screenplay award in 2002 for Bowling for Columbine. That film is now officially the first and last documentary ever nominated for the guild's original screenplay award.

Moore is unconcerned. He has chosen to submit Fahrenheit 9/11 for a Best Picture Oscar, rather than best documentary.

Was there a threat that Fahrenheit 9/11 would have been nominated for original screenplay? I thought the narration/writing was the movie's flaw.

The narration is, essentially, "House of Bush, House of Saud," by Craig Unger -- sometimes it's even word-for-word -- and a lot of the old stuff Moore wrote in his book, "Dude where's my country," i.e. the joke about Clinton helping the McVeigh family out of the country.

The images speak for themselves in this one:Trinity and Beyond (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114728/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD1vbnxwbj0wfHE9dHJpbml0eSBhbmQgYmV5b25kfGh0bWw9MXxubT1vbg__;fc=1;ft=1)

Mentioned before, but definitely Fog of War. Fascinating, just fascinating. Maybe not the most incisive documentary ever made, but the subject matter and McNamara make the film worth seeing.

For the title alone (plus, I happen to like garlic):Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080776/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD1vbnxwbj0wfHE9Z2FybGljIGlzIGFzIGdvb2QgYXMgbmluZSBtb3RoZXJzfGh0bWw9MXxubT1vbg__;fc=1;ft=1;fm=1)

And, probably the funniest documentary I have ever seen:American Movie: The Making of Northwestern (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181288/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD1vbnxwbj0wfHE9YW1lcmljYW4gbW92aWV8aHRtbD0xfG5tPW9u;fc=1;ft=18;fm=1)It's the cinematic equivelant of Spinal Tap, only for real. And funnier for it.If you can, do watch the end result of "Coven" for extra laughs.

In honor of its 25th anniversary, the International Documentary Association has released its list of the 25 best documentaries of all time, as determined by voting among its 2,800 members. They had an original ballot of 700 titles to choose from, and they were allowed up to five write-in votes. There was no limit in scope, in other words: There were plenty of eligible titles.

A new 35mm print of The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094980/) is playing at LACMA (http://www.lacma.org/event/decline-western-civilization-part-ii-metal-years) on April 4 w/Penelope Spheeris in person. Posting this mostly for jenk, but I know a couple more of you also live in LA.

the academy is building a glass-bubble museum for movies (http://www.oscars.org/academymuseum/) next to lacma, maybe probably, depending on funds of course, and future plans for lacma say this glass-bubble would be next to lacma's planned black-blob building (http://www.dezeen.com/2013/06/10/the-presence-of-the-past-peter-zumthor-reconsiders-lacma/)

so there'll be three academy theaters in the future definitely maybe, and for now (the academy already has offices in a lacma building) they're sharing the bing theater, which is ok for me because the academy's current nicest theater, the 1100+ capacity samuel goldwyn theater, is temporarily closed for stylistic renovations. the first academy/lacma set was the jarmusch movies, fwiw

i get these tickets for free so i have all of them +grey gardens. i've never seen the decline!! i haven't seen a single one of the three decline movies!! hopefully i can fix this soon (schedule permitting)

I have to recommend Wildwood, NJ (1994) by Carol Weaks and Cassidy and Ruth Leitman. The DVD is available via the directors' website, Ruthless Films (http://ruthlessfilms.com/featured-films/wildwood-nj/). It's full of gold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eqCBCUawKY

and I just started watching Todd Phillips' 1998 doc Frat House (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPe2aPTDAJE)...the question is will the rest live up to the first 45 seconds?

"I want you fuckin' aboard, you know what I'm sayin'? I want you to be one of my fuckin' boys.""I'm ready to come aboard."

i'm about halfway through frat house right now, does anyone have any information on the controversy surrounding the film regarding the possibility of some of it being staged? this shit looks insanely realistic, if it really is fake, this is his best film, hands down.

also my top docus right now would be:animal lovelake of fireleviathancrumb

this list i'm making up right now that's gonna be full of docs:grey gardens (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073076/)paris is burning (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100332/)milestones (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073389/)marjoe (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068924/)emporer's naked army marches on (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092963)the man who skied down everest (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073340/)american movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181288/)(something herzog, e.g. fata morgana (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067085/))titicut follies (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062374/)

stopping myself. i didn't know, when i started, that i'd enjoy making the list as much as i did

next woulda been sherman's march, but i sensed that was "risky territory," and anyway my list is already so long. positive i left some favorites out

yall check this out. wont go into detail. just watch it.LAST DAM RUN OF LIKKER ILL EVER MAKEdocumentary on this super oldschool moonshine expert.it's slow but if you like hearing stories, it is fucking awesome.03 [08|May 02:24 AM]: skip around it before you watch the whole thing to make sure you like it, it wont ruin anything03 [08|May 02:26 AM]: this dude unveils so much fuckin history03 [08|May 02:26 AM]: its ridiculoushttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp56sT66D1U

Some time ago I asked shoutbox for some recommendation. I wanted to thank again for those:

Brother's Keeper

Stevie

Capturing the Friedmans

20 Feet from Stardom

Near Death

Crumb

I'm hesitant, when it comes to crime related documentaries, since it can be turned easily into shockumentary. I mentioned Richard Kuklinski in some other thread ("Fargo" TV series), HBO made some interviews with him:

This is a good doc. It goes beyond the tired subject matter and focuses on exploring the individual performers relationships. Made by a German-born documentarian, it also captures LA better than most movies I've seen -- something about the foreign eyes on a familiar place gives it this ability to distill the city down to the elements of its landscape that make it different than anywhere else...recommended.

NSFW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSVYQ3nY2bM

And imo one of the best crime docs ever made, The Staircase (2004). Michael Petersen is a more interesting character than most writers could dream of creating.

(http://i.imgur.com/KvuYEs9.jpg)

Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, presents a gripping courtroom thriller, offering a rare and revealing inside look at a high-profile murder trial. In 2001, author Michael Peterson was arraigned for the murder of his wife Kathleen, whose body was discovered lying in a pool of blood on the stairway of their home. Granted unusual access to Peterson's lawyers, home and immediate family, de Lestrade's cameras capture the defense team as it considers its strategic options. "The staircase" is an engrossing look at contemporary American justice that features more twists than a legal bestseller.

A loving film tribute to Russian filmmaker Larisa Shepitko, who died tragically in a car accident in 1979 at the age of 40. This documentary by her husband, Elem Klimov, includes excerpts from all of Shepitko’s films, and her own voice is heard talking about her life and art.

and from Criterion's Eclipse Box description:

The career of Larisa Shepitko, an icon of sixties and seventies Soviet cinema, was tragically cut short when she was killed in a car crash at age forty, just as she was emerging on the international scene. The body of work she left behind, though small, is masterful, and her genius for visually evoking characters’ interior worlds is never more striking than in her two greatest works: Wings, an intimate yet exhilarating portrait of a female fighter pilot turned provincial headmistress, and The Ascent, a gripping, tragic wartime parable of betrayal and martyrdom. A true artist who had deftly used the Soviet film industry to make statements both personal and universal, Shepitko remains one of the greatest unsung filmmakers of all time.

The Staircase (2004). Michael Petersen is a more interesting character than most writers could dream of creating.

(http://i.imgur.com/KvuYEs9.jpg)

I finished watching this and there are two new installments filmed in 2011 that pick up where Peterson left off.

SPOILERS

It's such an engrossing documentary. Like you said, you couldn't write something this good, and yet I'm baffled as to how it was even made with so much coverage of the most minute details in the investigation. The access Petersen gave to the filmmakers of his home and private conversations with lawyers and family, HOW THE HELL DID HE THINK THAT WAS GOING TO HELP HIS CASE?!?!. What kind of lunatic are we dealing with here? That's what I find the most unsettling about the film, how much conviction he has in his own innocence and the hoops everyone else in his life has to jump through to go on believing him. It's sad, what he's done to his family and how long he's gotten away with it, and in the end even though you see him get his comeuppance you want it to hurt little more. "Come on, admit it. You're a sociopathic piece of shit."

I didn't like the treatment the West Memphis Three case got in 'Devil's Knot', but this one has all the ingredients for a great script just waiting there for the taking, and I'd be really surprised if they didn't do it, or already have it in the works right now with John C. Mcginley as Michael Peterson.

I watched 'American Movie' last night for the first time in many years, I must've still been a teenager the last time I saw it. It was a very different experience because as a kid I kind of looked up to Mark for his passionate, go getter attitude. His drive to make films really inspired me, because even though he worked a dead end job and had a mountain of debt, he still saw it as his ticket out. Everyone involved with the production felt like they were part of something bigger in their ordinary town, the movies gave them a purpose, however fleeting that may have been. And the fact it was all being filmed for a documentary must've really made it feel like "things were happening", and they DID happen! It's the funniest documentary of all time if you ask me.

Now, I'm approaching 26. You know, that pivotal year when QT made Reservoir Dogs and PTA did Boogie Nights? I couldn't identify with Mark more in his plight, and being a little grown up I felt like I finally read the film for how it's supposed to be presented. It's a tragic comedy, Mark never went on to be known for anything more than this, for which in large part he's acting like a complete asshole. Until this year (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401771/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1) he hasn't had a film in production since 'Coven'. His uncle GAVE him $50,000 in his will and he still couldn't make 'NorthWestern' happen. Uncle Bill is undoubtedly the best part of the movie, by the way. He's a total counter to everything Mark's about. His words are some of the most truthful in the movie, because they're untainted by Mark's delusional thinking. There's an added gravitas to him saying "I don't believe in this," "This isn't my dream" when you consider that he died the year after this film was made and Mark's subsequent lack of career in filmmaking. The biggest gift Mark could've repaid him with was involving him in 'American Movie'. Here's a humble, midwestern guy, widowed, just waiting to die in his trailer, and now he's forever immortalized in this movie as the barometer of common sense. In a way, I wish that Mark would've focused more of his energies on doing a documentary about Bill in his last days, he seems really interesting but we don't learn too much about him over the course of this movie, and Mark's interactions with him are pure gold. He's hustling him at every turn and Bill can sniff it all out.

There's something so perfect about how this documentary came together. Everyone in it seems like such a thought out character, and some parts are so damn funny it's hard to believe they weren't written. I couldn't help but see parallels to the 'Non-Fiction' segment of 'Storytelling', where the question is always looming of whether Giamatti's character 'respects' his subjects or not. Chris Smith is clearly staying out of the way with any filmmaking input and constantly giving Mark enough rope to hang himself, but at the end of the day he got to be the star of his own movie! Isn't that what he always wanted? From his IMDB page, this was obviously a wake up call that his place was in front of the camera, not behind it.

I want to put together some clips so you can all share in my delight. Just a really poignant and hilarious film that I certainly recommend a rewatch of, or a watch if you haven't yet!

I just watched the film. It lives up to the trailer. It is short. I think it follows only a year in the boys lives. That is the only disappointment. if it was three plus years, it would be truly great.

I watched 'American Movie' last night for the first time in many years, I must've still been a teenager the last time I saw it. It was a very different experience because as a kid I kind of looked up to Mark for his passionate, go getter attitude. His drive to make films really inspired me, because even though he worked a dead end job and had a mountain of debt, he still saw it as his ticket out. Everyone involved with the production felt like they were part of something bigger in their ordinary town, the movies gave them a purpose, however fleeting that may have been. And the fact it was all being filmed for a documentary must've really made it feel like "things were happening", and they DID happen! It's the funniest documentary of all time if you ask me.

Now, I'm approaching 26. You know, that pivotal year when QT made Reservoir Dogs and PTA did Boogie Nights? I couldn't identify with Mark more in his plight, and being a little grown up I felt like I finally read the film for how it's supposed to be presented. It's a tragic comedy, Mark never went on to be known for anything more than this, for which in large part he's acting like a complete asshole. Until this year (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401771/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1) he hasn't had a film in production since 'Coven'. His uncle GAVE him $50,000 in his will and he still couldn't make 'NorthWestern' happen. Uncle Bill is undoubtedly the best part of the movie, by the way. He's a total counter to everything Mark's about. His words are some of the most truthful in the movie, because they're untainted by Mark's delusional thinking. There's an added gravitas to him saying "I don't believe in this," "This isn't my dream" when you consider that he died the year after this film was made and Mark's subsequent lack of career in filmmaking. The biggest gift Mark could've repaid him with was involving him in 'American Movie'. Here's a humble, midwestern guy, widowed, just waiting to die in his trailer, and now he's forever immortalized in this movie as the barometer of common sense. In a way, I wish that Mark would've focused more of his energies on doing a documentary about Bill in his last days, he seems really interesting but we don't learn too much about him over the course of this movie, and Mark's interactions with him are pure gold. He's hustling him at every turn and Bill can sniff it all out.

There's something so perfect about how this documentary came together. Everyone in it seems like such a thought out character, and some parts are so damn funny it's hard to believe they weren't written. I couldn't help but see parallels to the 'Non-Fiction' segment of 'Storytelling', where the question is always looming of whether Giamatti's character 'respects' his subjects or not. Chris Smith is clearly staying out of the way with any filmmaking input and constantly giving Mark enough rope to hang himself, but at the end of the day he got to be the star of his own movie! Isn't that what he always wanted? From his IMDB page, this was obviously a wake up call that his place was in front of the camera, not behind it.

I want to put together some clips so you can all share in my delight. Just a really poignant and hilarious film that I certainly recommend a rewatch of, or a watch if you haven't yet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMFZOu8rDUQ

I saw it based on your recommendation and you're right on the money, it's funny and heartbreaking as hell. But I don't really see Mark as a loser or some crazy deluded dumbass. I think the film aims more to a kind of Ed Wood territory, where how talented or untalented he is becomes irrelevant in the face of his passion. He's infected with the film virus and there's nothing he can do about it. And as we've seen years on, he will continue trying no matter what, because even if you never "make it", whatever that means, there will be nothing that gives you more joy in life than making movies, once you taste it.

Yeah, it's interesting to hear your take as someone who's actually made films. I think theres some line where he's talking about 'absolute freedom' being "running around in a graveyard with a beer in one hand and a camera in the other." That's so funny to me, like he's fully engaged in the act of it, but not entirely invested in the product. If you watch the film 'Coven' you'll see how poorly written it is, I watched it with my friend and you would've thought it was a comedy from how much we were laughing at all the blunders in it. It really is essential viewing after you've seen the doc, to know what all that effort was going into. I don't know where it's available online

Glad I could influence you to see it! Didn't know there was anyone left here who hadn't. I'm kind of on a crusade to get people to watch or rewatch because of how profoundly hilarious it was to me.

from sherman's march, he's talking to a female for some reason i forget, and i once wrote this all down and i want to keep remembering and remembering it:

Quote

So then. . .I figure this will be the beginning of my screenplay. So that's the first - scene in my screenplay. Just me and Granny Smith - I have braids on, plaid shirt, the whole thing. ('You have to give me a compressed version because I'll never...') (She laughs). So that's how it starts out.

Then I turn into the best actress in the world. Probably with some huge love scene, comparable to Romeo and Juliet. Something that captivates the whole world - the heart of the world. Now by the fact that I'm such a famous actress I'm a multi-millionaire, and move to an island in the South Seas, with my lover who's going to be Tarzan to me. And we just play Jane and Tarzan.

And then about three years later we build a center - which will have seven or eight centers coming out from - we'll have another island with a center. And this will be the most intellectual island in the world, full of the top scientists, we'll cure cancer, et cetera.

And I come back, and I've found all these scientific things - possibly cured cancer myelf. Come back - -

Now wait a minute, while I'm on the island though, my Tarzan lover, whose name is Will, he has a fit because he no longer has me to himself, so he goes into a fit and burns down the island that's totally built on, you know, all the scientific research.

And at this point in the movie I want it to be total fantasy. Just, like, tropical, huge, huge plants. Huge animals. The music will be, just, unbelievable. Probably Stevie Wonder's type of music. 'The Secret Life of Plants.'

('How old are you at this point?')

(She sighs). At this point, pretty much ageless. Because I've been an astronaut. So I haven't really aged. And this is another thing that overwhelms people, is that I'm this person who's really never really aged.

And so we go to Venus. And - we start coming back and forth to Earth and we start teaching people flying lessons, 'cause the gravity's different, so, therefore we can build our muscles up like breaststroke (she demonstrates). And we come back and forth.

Well I get in a huge fight with Will in Venus and he takes a sword and cuts my head off and my head floats back to Malibu Mountain, in California. And I give this speech - and at this point I'm a female prophet - and I give this speech to the whole world who's lined up on fences, beaches, all along the mountaintops.

And all they see is my head floating. And it's just totally....gets to the whole world.

And my message is one of love.

same but with a guy giving advice in david holzman's diary:

(http://i.imgur.com/e4SnGly.png)

Quote

Okay, well, Penny is ridiculous. She's pride. She behaves melodramatically. She just - not credible. I know you didn't set it up, I know she really got annoyed. But I - I don't know somehow it just - it's not believable. Because - you listen, like very bad actress, in a very bad script -- horrible movie, just horrible movie. Um -- you know, I like her, it's alright. I - you know, if you want to live in her bad movie it's alright because - some people's lives are good movies, some people's lives are bad movies, and Penny's life's a very bad movie, but don't make me look at it on the screen, please. You know it -- (drags from a cigarette) -- the problem is that you wanna make a movie out of your life, alright, so you wanna be in it, you want Penny to be in it, and me to be in it, and your apartment my apartment, but, I'm an interesting character to watch, but you're not an interesting character, and Penny is certainly not an interesting character at all. And uh, I don't know, if you want to make a good movie just write a script, I'm sure you can write a better script than that. But this is not a good one. Your life is not a very good script, but, ugh. Somehow I - I don't think that you want to make a good movie. What you want do is find things about your life, find out the truth. There's something that happens that you don't understand, you wanna get to the core of it. Well David I don't think that you're gonna find it this way because if something happens and you don't understand it, [something], you're not gonna understand it any better by freezing it on celluloid and looking at it over and over again. You know - what you have to do is try to understand it the first time. And uh -- I don't know. (Drags from a cigarette.) But - you don't understand the basic principle: as soon as you start filming something, whatever happens in front of the camera is not reality anymore. It becomes part of something else. It becomes a movie. And, uh - you've stopped living, somehow. And you get very self-conscious about anything you do. 'Should I put my hand here, should I put my hand here?' 'Should I place myself this side of the frame, should I place myself this side of the frame?' And your decisions stop being moral decisions and they become aesthetical decisions. And your whole life stops being your life and becomes a work of art. And a very bad work of art this time. But, ahem (drags a cigarette, puts cigarette out). I don't know, it's just very foolish to think that there's any spontaneity in what's happening in this movie because you say to me, 'Look, I'm onna show you the film I'm doing, and I want you to tell me what you think of it.' And then what do you do? You place me in front of the mural, you make me move the table out of the way so you can see it all, and uh, you knew exactly what I was gonna say.

You didn't put words in my mouth, you didn't tell me what to say, but you knew what I was gonna say because you know me, and uh, and I'm not gonna say anything that will harm you. I won't say any truth, because I don't know you, I just know a little bit of you, and it's same way with the film, you wanna put - a little bit of David, safe part of David, the David that you wouldn't be afraid to show to anybody. But there's a David that you don't want to be in the film, and that David may be the truth. And uh -- that's what you should try to put in the film, if you don't dare face yourself other ways. Confess things to the camera. I don't know, say, say the things that -- that you're most ashamed of, things that you don't want to remember. Things that you don't want anybody to know. Maybe, maybe that way there'll be some truth. Or perhaps you should take off all your clothes and stand in front of the camera for hours. And and not do anything, just stand in front of the camera. Perhaps something magical will happen. Perhaps some truth will come out -- like, I'm not sure. But, you know, one thing I'm pretty sure of - you know, hmm -- the way you're handling this whole thing, you just getting half-truths. You're not getting truths, you're just getting half-truths, and, I think that's what's done a lot. It's very good. Okay, that - that's all I have to say. (Beat).

David, I don't want to play any games, please, turn it off.

paris is burning:

(http://i.imgur.com/c2qMmSY.png)

Quote

Pepper: You know a lot of those kids that are in the balls, they don't have two of nothing. Some of them don't even eat. They come to balls starvin. And they sleep [somewhere]. Or they sleep on the pier. Or wherever. They don't have a home to go to ... but they'll make, they'll go out and they'll steal something and get dressed up and come to a ball for that one night and live the fantasy.

(http://i.imgur.com/RCzBRGv.png)

Quote

There's people who sit home all day, they have potential, okay. I mean they go to the balls and they prove that they have potentials on actually selling a garment. Okay, but they like, being that I have this potential the ballroom tells me, okay, the ballroom tells me that I'm somebody. When the ballroom is over, when you come home, you have to convince yourself that you are somebody. And that's where they get lost.

In their final year at Muncie's Southside High School, a group of seniors hurtle toward maturity with a combination of joy, despair, and an aggravated sense of urgency. They are also learning a great deal about life, both in and out of school, and not what school officials think they are.

Funny that was the last recommendation because after 'Making A Murderer' I had to seek out some other gritty docs to keep me in the same mind state, for some reason. I would hope you have all seen the brutal foray into depravity that is 'Dope Sick Love.' Well, HBO has recently released a documentary called 'Heroin: Cape Cod, USA' which serves as a kind of pseudo sequel in that it covers the exact same subject with much more well off and privileged kids. They're not as desperate or scummy looking as the street urchins we come across in 'Dope Sick'. They're actually super nonchalant about their heroin use because apparently all of Massachusetts has become like a haven for opiates which were responsible for over 1,000 overdose deaths in the state last year. I was turned on to this from Big Jay Oakerson mentioning it on 'The Bonfire' and the only reason he did was to bring up how obnoxiously thick their New England accents are somehow makes them talking about heroin all the time comical. He's absolutely right. There are countless moments of hilarious line deliveries, and I don't think I've ever felt less sympathy for drug addicts before. They're being interviewed talking about how it's the love of their lives and all they need, but BOY DO I WISH I COULD QUIT. It's an interesting example of a movie about users you can kind of laugh at because of how clean cut and arrogant these kids are. There are an obscene amount of close ups of injections, which I can never stomach, but if you look away it's worth it :yabbse-wink:

Secondly is movie on a much more fascinating subject called 'Thought Crimes: The Case Of The Cannibal Cop.' It's about the NYPD patrolman who was thrown in jail for his extremely graphic correspondences over a fetish website. If any of you are familiar with Sword and Scale's infamous "episode 20", this is like a less explicit account of the same type of case. Except that in this story, no hard evidence ever showed up connecting the cop to actually intending to commit these crimes. However, many questions come into play about the character of this man by the lengths he would go to obtain information about these real life 'victims' and share it with people over the internet. It's a very dark and compelling documentary about whether it's even possible to be prosecuted for our subjective fantasies, and it now needs a sequel because Gilberto Valle was acquitted of all charges 3 weeks ago.

aw man, Wilder deleted his post before I got to read it! It must've contained some self incriminating statements. I have a bad habit of not responding soon enough…

If any of you had the faintest interest in 'Foxcatcher', I can't suggest The Prince Of Pennsylvania (http://www.netflix.com/title/80084264) enough! It's an hour long ESPN documentary covering the whole 'rise and fall' of Dupont's wrestling career ( to say the least ). It's a much more comprehensive account of the events leading up to that tragic day, and leaves the impression that Dupont was WAY crazier than they portrayed him in the movie, but there was a subtlety in Carrell's performance that really gets under your skin.

Thanks Reelist, I just watched 43 minutes of Cannibal Cop at work. While also being semi-productive. Very interesting doc. The access they got is very reminiscent of Making a Murderer.

SPOILERS

I agree with the acquittal. The level of detail in his fantasies doesn't matter, practically. Researching how to do things was obviously intended to heighten his fantasies and make them feel more real. His plans were provably unrealistic and every "deadline" simply passed with nothing happening — that seems like a smoking gun.

Reactivated Netflix tonight and was reminded of this documentary from a few years ago. It's not amazingly put together, but what makes it fascinating is the exploration of the older girl, Ashley, a former model, who now works as a scout. The deeper you get into her psyche the more you wonder what's wrong with her, why she's doing what she's doing given what she knows, and at one point it goes into such a weird place you start to feel like you're watching a truly demented Chabrol thriller.

Despite a lack of obvious similarities between Siberia and Tokyo, a thriving model industry connects these distant regions. Girl Model follows two protagonists involved in this industry: Ashley, a deeply ambivalent model scout who scours the Siberian countryside looking for fresh faces to send to the Japanese market, and one of her discoveries, Nadya, a 13-year-old plucked from her rustic home in Russia and dropped into the center of bustling Tokyo with promises of a profitable career....

Lot of interesting documentaries are up for free on Thought Maybe (https://thoughtmaybe.com), including Alex Gibney's latest, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, Going Clear, Citizenfour, Adam Curtis' 'The Century of the Self', Girl Model, and The Act of Killing

The History Channel's 12-part documentary The Color of War (2001) (https://www.amazon.com/History-Classics-Color-War-DVD/dp/B0082GN8T4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466578191&sr=8-1&keywords=the+color+of+war), comprised exclusively of color WWII footage, and narrated by Peter Coyote. The first 5 parts are up on youtube, but in really terrible quality. I saw the part I screencapped from below over the weekend and it reminded me of you-know-what...

At its core, World War II was a black-and-white struggle between good and evil. But the everyday scenes of carnage, human resistance, and guttural warfare were much more complex. A striking assemblage of color footage and photographs from national archives and private collections, THE COLOR OF WAR delivers striking perspectives on the day-to-day experience from every imaginable angle. From the first draftees thrown into the breach to the sheer boredom between battles to the uniforms worn and the objects carried, this unparalleled collection of voices is further illuminated by letters and diaries, communiques from the battlefield and the sounds and songs of the era.

The mythos of a faceless, digital-age bogeyman known as Slenderman was created on the Internet, but his influence was felt in the real world when two 12-year-old girls lured their friend into the woods for a brutal murder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p1eVLEbOIw

The most disturbing documentary I've seen in a long time. Whenever I'd tried to read into this case, I found it hard to understand how an imaginary character could provoke these girls to do such an awful thing. If Slenderman loomed so large in their minds, why has there never been a similar occurrence? The doc explores how a combination of feeling socially outcast, suffering mental illness, and a little too much time reading spooky stories on the internet led them to commit an unthinkable act. The interrogation scenes are especially creepy, to hear the cold and calculated plans for first degree murder spoken in these little girls voices. You really can't help but pity them by the end for operating under such a grand delusion.

B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin (2015). Available on blu-ray in Germany (https://www.amazon.de/B-MOVIE-Sound-West-Berlin-1979-1989-Blu-ray/dp/B012BTVSR6/ref=sr_1_1_twi_blu_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1501065177&sr=8-1&keywords=b-movie+lust)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj3qj6KNcLU

Music, art and chaos in the wild West-Berlin of the 1980s. The walled-in city became the creative melting pot for sub- and pop-culture. Before the iron curtain fell, everything and anything seemed possible. B-MOVIE is a fast-paced collage of mostly unreleased film and TV footage from a frenzied but creative decade, starting with punk and ending with the Love Parade, in a city where the days are short and the nights are endless. Where it was not about long-term success, but about living for the moment - the here and now.